CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ A beloved Outer Banks wild stallion that was believed to have died weeks ago has suddenly emerged from the marshes looking like a completely different animal, according to the nonprofit Corolla Wild Horse Fund.
The sickly horse, named Topnotch, was last seen April 9 with its ribs showing and patches of bare skin exposed due to hair loss, the fund says.
That made his unexpected reappearance this week all the more miraculous.
"He disappeared into the marsh and were worried he'd passed away, but lo and behold, he was spotted today looking wonderful!" herd manager Meg Puckett of the fund wrote on Facebook Tuesday.
"He's probably gained about 150 lbs and his skin condition seems to have cleared up. ... Hopefully his body condition will keep improving through the summer; we will continue to keep a close eye on him," she posted.
The surprising transformation occurred on a stretch of East Coast barrier islands that are known for their mysteries. Old bombs wash up in storms, shipwrecks are swallowed by the beaches and entire islands vanish in days.
Topnotch is one of about 100 wild horses that roam the Corolla area, on the northern end of the Outer Banks. Similar feral herds are found south on the Shackleford Banks and Cedar Island. All are believed descended from escaped or abandoned mustangs brought to the coast 500 years ago by early settlers, according to Outerbanks.com.
Puckett said in a Facebook post that Topnotch is well known on the island for being one of the herd's most active stallions, with a harem of mares surrounding him at all times. His sickly condition last month came as surprise, she said.
"Topnotch is an older guy who has always had a pretty large harem. He is a very aggressive, bold stallion and it was not uncommon to see him with six or seven mares," she wrote on Facebook.
"Sometime late last summer a young black stallion started challenging Topnotch for his mares. Through the winter, we watched as the black stallion tailed the harem relentlessly, keeping Topnotch on the defensive. His body condition began to suffer under the stress, but he never slowed down."
The relentless competition seemed to have taken its toll by the first week of April, when Topnotch was seen ailing and "without his mares," she said.
"We knew he must have lost the long fight to keep them. Not only that, he had dropped even more weight and his poor coat condition indicated the stress was impacting his health in other ways too," Puckett wrote on Facebook.
"As sad as it was to see him alone, we wondered if losing the mares wasn't the best thing that could have happened to Topnotch," she posted.
Coincidentally, it appears the black stallion that had been challenging Topnotch did not win his harem. Puckett says his mares are now split between two different stallions, neither of which is black horse that "chased" Topnotch all winter.
"He could very well get new mares," Puckett told McClatchy News.
Stranger things have happened on the Outer Banks.
